Daily Times

Sweden’s conservative leader Ulf Kristersson was on Wednesday granted an extension to form a government with the unprecedented support of the far-right Sweden Democrats following a September election win. Kristersson and his Moderate party have been in negotiations for the past month with the Christian Democrats, the Liberals, and the Sweden Democrats (SD). The prospective prime minister had been due to report back to speaker of parliament Anders Norlen on Wednesday on whether he had enough support for a government, but instead asked the speaker for another two days to finalise the agreement between the parties. “It is in principle done and we are going towards forming a government in the next few days,” Kristersson told reporters. “There are a few details we want to iron out in order to present it all together,” he added. It remains however unclear which parties will make up the next government. The most likely scenario is one comprised of the Moderates and Christian Democrats, possibly with the Liberals, with the SD backing the government in parliament. During the campaign, SD leader Jimmie Akesson had insisted on having cabinet posts in any right-wing government, but the Liberals had vowed to block any government that included the SD. Norlen set Kristersson’s new deadline for Friday, with a possible vote on him as prime minister held in parliament on Monday at the earliest. The nationalist and anti-immigration SD, which won a record 20.5 percent of the vote in the September 11 election, will become the largest force in the new majority, with 73 out of 349 seats in parliament.